The Watchman On The Wall

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Verse 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Millennials Embrace France's National Front

Above, Jean-Marie LePen the founder of the National Front;

Sébastien Faustini's decision to skip the
firework display at the beach not only potentially saved his life — it steered
his politics toward the far right.

The soft-spoken 18-year-old stayed home with
his cousin and watched the Bastille Day display on TV, instead of heading to
the Nice promenade as they'd planned on July 14.

"We could have been there," said
Faustini, who is now forced to pass by the scene of attack daily on his way to
university. "Every day that hits me."

Three weeks ago, he joined France's far-right
National Front.

"Certain media organizations stigmatize
members of the National Front calling them fascists, insults that have nothing
to do with the party's program," Faustini said.

Faustini is far from alone. Many millennials
are embracing the National Front — which boasts a founder who had been fined
repeatedly for racism and anti-Semitism. They say recent terrorist attacks
across Europe and high unemployment levels validate their personal views and
the party's anti-immigration stance.

"THE FAILURE OF
THE RIGHT TO DO SOMETHING AND THE FAILURE OF THE LEFT TO CHANGE ANYTHING MAKES
MARINE LE PEN THE PERSON WHO REPRESENTS CHANGE"

According to a report released by polling
organization Odoxa on Dec. 16, the National Front is the political party with the most support among
French people aged 18-34. Roughly one-in-five back it.

The party is currently led by Marine Le Pen,
who is one of the country's most popular politicians. She is currently second
in the polls to become president in next spring's elections.

Le Pen's platform includes exiting the European
Union, stopping free movement at the French border, sending asylum seekers back
to their native countries, and introducing tariffs as part of protectionist
economic policies to put "France first."

Critics say her platform is fueled by fear and
xenophobia, sentiments already on the rise after a series of terrorist attacks

National Front
activists call themselves "patriots" who care about French identity.

Bryan Masson, an
18-year-old student who runs the youth division of the National Front in Nice,
recalled trembling with excitement as he watched Trump's triumph.

"For us it
was a victory too," Masson said over coffee in the center of the vacation
destination.

He said it was
an "extremely positive" sign for Le Pen, because she is also a
candidate for the people who is working against the establishment in Paris.

But Le Pen is
hardly a new face in French politics.

Her father,
Jean-Marie Le Pen, founded the National Front more than 40 years ago. Since
taking over as party president in 2011, his daughter has set out to separate
the party from his anti-Semitic comments.

She insists he
no longer speaks for the party — even though he remains the National Front's
honorary president.

Marine Le Pen is
wooing frustrated supporters of the traditional conservative and socialist
parties. The party's campaign logo is a blue rose: a symbol that joins the
traditional rose of the left wing with the color blue of the right wing.

Her efforts to
"detoxify" the party appear to be working with young people, who
didn't experience her dad's legacy.

Young party
activists say that they believe many of their friends will vote for Le Pen in
next year's presidential election, even though they say it's taboo for
sympathizers to admit it.

In Nice, Le
Pen's rhetoric on immigration resonates most.

Masson and his
friends joked around in the city's empty National Front offices after class
earlier this month, erupting into laughter as activist Cyril Martinez imitated
Trump saying he would build a wall to keep Mexicans out.

They agree that
the government should care about the French people before the migrants.

Many young
National Front activists spoke at length about radical Islam and concerns about
religion in France.

They want
immigrants to assimilate to French culture, speak the language and even
"eat French," eliminating halal as a meal option.

Many of them
said they had only recently become interested in politics.

Manon Bouquin, a
24-year-old history student at the renowned Paris-Sorbonne University, joined
the National Front two years ago.

Bouquin, who
said she doesn't follow any religion, is concerned that mosques are being built
in her hometown, in the capital's suburbs.

In terms of
immigration, she would welcome Christians from the Middle East.

Bouquin said she
was happy that Trump won in the United States; although she disagrees with his
statements about women, his international policies are in line with her
beliefs.

The day after
the U.S. election, she tweeted a picture of herself wearing a "Make America
Great Again" hat.

Gaëtan
Dussausaye quit studying for his master's degree at the Sorbonne aged 20 when
Marine Le Pen named him director of the National Front's youth division.

Two year later,
he says that a broader message of change is driving many young people to back
Le Pen.

"The
failure of the right to do something and the failure of the left to change
anything makes Marine Le Pen the person who represents change," he said.

The National
Front typically does better among "uneducated young people,"
according to Jean-Yves Camus, a political analyst who has studied the far right
for decades. "They tend to think in terms of black and white:
globalization is bad and if we go back to the old borders and old currency
everything will change overnight."

The party
remains unpopular at universities.

In November, the
Paris Institute for Political Studies, also known as SciencesPo Paris, canceled
the planned speech of National Front Vice-President Florian Philippot. The
cancellation came after students protested what they called a
"racist" party.

Philippot
compared the protests to Season 8 of "The Walking Dead" — which
includes scenes of chaos and brutality — calling the students
"fascists" who did not believe in "democracy."

David
Masson-Weyl, a 24-year-old masters student, founded a National Front student
group last year at SciencesPo Paris.

He needed 120
votes to receive support from the students to gain official status.

"We really
doubted that it would happen." When it did, he said, it was due to
students' desire "to have all ideas represented," rather than
students' support for the ideology itself.

"Most
students are open to debate," he added.

But questions
remain about what the party stands for.

Philippot, a
35-year-old gay man, serves as the main inspiration for young activists in
Paris who say the National Front is neither right nor left. However, the
party's rising star, 26-year-old Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, who happens to be
Marine Le Pen's niece, is a social conservative.

Philippot and
Maréchal-Le Pen recently spent several weeks arguing publicly over the
reimbursement of abortion fees.

"There are
certainly tensions between the two groups," Bryan Masson said. "Young
National Front activists in Paris say they're not left or right. In reality,
they're left," he explained. "Here in the South, we're a part of the
right."

Overall,
political parties are highly unpopular in France. According to the Odoxa poll,
most young people do not talk about politics because it seems distant from real
life, even though they still intend to vote in the upcoming election.

Odoxa also found
that 67 percent of respondents aged 18 - 34 expressed a negative view of the
National Front — compared to 69 percent feeling similarly about the Socialists
and 65 percent about the Republicans.

Some of those
who are not supporting Marine Le Pen say they are considering voting against
her rather than voting for someone in whom they actually believe.

Ph.D. students
Walid Chaiehloudj and Said Benkhalyl in Nice, France are of North African
descent and both consider the National Front's policies to be
"xenophobic."

They doubt that
Marine Le Pen's plan to leave the European Union will work.

"Without
the European Union, France isn't very important," Chaiehloudj said, adding
that France would not remain a "major power."

They agree that
recent terror attacks have helped the National Front and driven French politics
to the right.

On security,
National Front politicians "don't even need to open their mouths,"
Benkhalyl said. Muslims are the "scapegoats of this time period."

But despite the
change message, Jean-Marie Le Pen still casts a long shadow over the party.

At a Dec. 11
gathering of the nationalist group Terre et Peuple — or Land and People — a
Jean-Marie Le Pen surrogate delivered a message that evoked the
Nazi-collaborating Vichy government slogan: work, family, homeland.

One man had a
Confederate flag stitched onto his jacket. Another carried a copy of Adolf
Hitler's autobiography "Mein Kampf."

Terre et
Peuple's magazine has included articles on ethnic war, the "horror"
of globalization, and "combative" Islam.

The crowd
cheered as Le Pen's message was read aloud endorsing their patriotism and
trumpeting a message of French identity.

Those factors
are driving many French millennials towards the party, despite its history.